What Should You Do With A Team Member Who Isn’t Producing?

Michael Church opened his first agency in 2006. In the nearly two decades since, he has mastered the art of supporting his team to be the best producers they can be. This is a critical skill for agency owners—something you may know all too well if you’re struggling to get a team member to perform with the rest of the pack.

Below is Michael’s blueprint for how to deal with team members who aren’t keeping up with expectations. His expertise will help you identify underperformers in your own agency, encourage them to meet goals, and guide you through the termination process if it turns out that’s the best solution.

You can listen to Michael’s complete webinar here, or keep reading to dive right into the action plan.

4 Phases For Handling Underperformers

Michael separates his strategy into four separate phases that will give the underperforming teammate an adequate chance to catch up—but also a hard deadline for progress.

Phase 1: The First Month

The first phase will look different for a new hire versus an employee you’ve had for years who has suddenly started phoning it in at work.

If you’ve just hired someone, you’ll likely be paying close attention to their work to make sure they’re getting up to speed in a reasonable amount of time.

If a longtime employee starts to fall behind, on the other hand, you might want to cut them a bit of slack for a short period. It’s possible their circumstances at home have changed, or they could be dealing with another external problem.

Regardless of the situation, you’ll want to have an open, honest conversation with the person. Avoid blame at this point. Your initial goal is to understand the root of the problem, not to apply guilt or pressure. After all, there may be a valid reason they’ve suddenly started struggling at work.

Michael emphasizes that firing someone after just one bad month isn’t sustainable; you’d never retain a team! Instead, try to make it clear that you’re willing and available to work through any problems.

To start, you might say, “Hey, I noticed you haven’t met [X goal] this month. Is everything okay?”

Michael recommends asking open-ended questions that give your employee an opening to explain what’s going on without fear of reprisal. “I don’t cast blame right away,” he says. “I ask them, ‘What went wrong?’ ‘What got in the way?’ ‘What do you think the problem was?’”

Specifically for sales roles, you’re trying to narrow down whether the employee’s underperformance is due to one of the following reasons:

• Do they have enough leads and opportunities?
• Have they been able to successfully contact those prospects?
• Are the policies they offer competitive in terms of price, coverage, and convenience?
• Can they close the deal?

Michael uses a CRM system to track leads, contacts, quotes, and sales so he can keep an eye on each employee’s metrics.

The problem may not lie in one of those areas (perhaps they’ve had a bad month due to some external factor like a health scare), but if it does, you can help them come up with a plan to resolve the issue.

As you brainstorm together, document what you talk about. Write down your specific goals, strategies for how to accomplish them, and any other notes that might help them stay on track. Email this document to the employee after your meeting so you both have a copy and can refer to it as you go forward.

It’s worth noting that Michael believes strongly in keeping goals simple. He tracks progress toward sales goals as green (met), yellow (close), or red (not met). That way, there is zero complexity or room for confusion and debate.

Phase 2: The Second Month

If all goes well with your plan, you won’t need phase 2 or any of the subsequent phases. Simply acknowledge your team member’s success and get back to business as usual.

However, if the underperformance continues, it’s critical to stay on top of it. When problems stretch into the next month, that’s a sign that you need to take a more active role in motivating the employee to stay on target.

Michael advises doing all of the following to make sure your bases are covered:

• Refer back to the meeting you had during phase one and remind your employee that your goals are non-negotiable.
• Bring up the plan you made together and ask, “What went wrong?” Then actively listen to their response.
• It’s okay to apply some pressure at this point, especially if your other team members are meeting their goals and you’re certain the goals you’ve picked are reasonable.
• You might need to address some excuses if your employee voices any. They might try to say they’re quotes are losing when up against other carriers or the list of leads they were given weren’t any good. Michael addresses this by saying, “The challenges you just expressed to me are very real, but everyone else in the office has the same challenges.” This can help shift the focus of the conversation from external factors to the employee’s individual performance.
• Once again, come up with steps to resolve the issue and document all your conclusions. This time, however, you want some assurance that these steps will actually produce results. Again, you’re applying a bit of pressure here.
• You might consider termination at this point. Michael has done this in the past when it was clear that the team member was highly unlikely to turn it around and parting ways was the best course of action.
• If you choose to keep the employee, make sure they understand the consequences of continuing to lag behind. Michael advises directness: “If we have to meet about this again, the tone is going to be different. And the outcome of the meeting may be different as well.”

Phase 3: The Third Month

When an employee has underperformed for three months straight, that’s a clear problem. By this point, Michael says he’s “about 50/50” on whether to offer one more chance or terminate right then.

Before you decide, you might need to have one more conversation. If it’s clear there are no solid resolutions, that could be your sign to let the person go. On the other hand, if your employee is lagging on one specific goal but nailing several others, you can give them some slack and offer more time to solve the problem.

Even if you choose to give them another shot, you’ll want to provide a clear, direct warning. Michael gives an example: “If you’re unable to meet these goals by next month, you’ll need to start exploring other career opportunities.”

It might seem harsh. However, your other employees are able to succeed using the tools and assistance you give them; there’s no reason to think this person can’t succeed, too.

Phase 4: The Goodbye Conversation

By this point if the employee hasn’t improved their performance, it’s time to let them go.

Having to fire someone isn’t personal, according to Michael. After all, you’re not making a judgement on their character, just on their ability to do the job as it is assigned.

Michael keeps his termination conversations as brief and to-the-point as possible—no more than a five minute meeting. He doesn’t allow room for debate, argument, or even questions. The message is very clear: “This isn't working out. It’s not the job for you.”

In some cases, he finds it necessary to repeat that point until the (former) employee gets the message that he’s not changing his mind. It’s important to be clear and firm, otherwise you risk opening the door to a long, uncomfortable conversation when there doesn’t need to be one.

What if everyone in your office struggles to find and close leads?

If you’ve got more than one employee telling you your leads aren’t converting, it might not just be an excuse. Some lead sources are better than others—for example, you’ll statistically get better results when the client calls you directly or shares their information only with you than you will from traditional internet leads where your prospect is often getting phone calls from dozens of other agents at once.

When it’s time to upgrade your leads and boost close rates across the board for your agency, contact EverQuote. With real time lead delivery and limited share rates on our data leads, as well as high converting Consumer-Initiated Inbound Calls and exclusive 1:1 leads available, we’ll start funneling highly motivated prospects to your phone line or inbox right away, and you can eliminate the worry that a bad lead source could be holding your producers back.

Get started with EverQuote here.